The first day on the Dream was very hectic. We could not get in our rooms until l:30pm. Food lines on lido deck were ridicilous. There were 4100 guests on board including over 800 children. When it was time to go to our staterooms, we waited almost an hour for an elevator. It got better the next day, but the lines on lido deck were still bad. We began to go to the dining room for breakfast and lunch. That was smooth. The transition disembarking was very smooth and hassel free. We booked our transportation from the ship to the airport 10 days before our cruise. While on the cruise we paid and extra $20 per person to have our bags picked up and we did not see them again until our arrival at out home destination flight. That was great. As far as the Dream goes, I have been on prettier ships such as the Spirit and I prefer the Spirit over the Dream. Bigger is not necessarily better. The ports were great. They were Naussau, St. Thomas, St. Martin. My favorite was St. Martin. I fould the shopping to be better in St. Martin, Dutch side, better than the rest. Had a splendid time. The shows at night on the Dream were just great. Best I have ever seen on a ship. They didn't have as many different activities as the Spirit did. A woman named Brandy went missing one night. Her 2 children and husband were worried about her. We got woke up at 6AM that morning by the captain looking for her. They made several announcements. The last one being that they were going to go from cabin to cabin searching for her. She showed up. She had spent the night in another cabin. Very interesting. Someone said that they would put her and her family off at the next port for causing so much disturbance. That was the only drama on the ship that I knew about.

Sounds like you had a good time overall. I believe that it is standard throughout Carnival that staterooms are not accessible until 1:30PM on embarkation days. At least that was the way the last 3 cruises we took (Aug and Oct 09 and Mar 2010). Did the long lines for food on the Lido deck ever get any shorter as the week went by? We are going on the Carnival Dream in Oct this year. Guess we will have to be prepared to wait a bit.